Smart house of the future

Honda's smart house is an innovative eco-friendly, energy efficient lab, that is able to generate its own power as a solution to living off the grid.

As we get more and more electric vehicles we're going to have to be more careful in the way they integrate with the house and how they integrate with the electric grid. So by putting the house and car together as a system, the system can be more than the sum of its parts.

Michael Koenig, Honda Smart Home

Created in partnership with the University of California at Davis, Honda's zero-net energy home is heated and cooled by the earth and generates enough power from solar energy to also run a car and feed energy back into the grid.

In designing the home, scientists at Honda said they took local weather conditions into account to optimise heating and cooling. They say once their data is made public, people will able to incorporate elements into the planning and design of their own homes.

But why is Honda in the business of building homes?

The car giant's involvement seems to indicate they are interested in more than just building cars of the future.

Michael Koenig, the project leader at Honda Smart Home, says as more people get electric vehicles it is crucial to know how they will integrate with people's homes and the electric grid.

TechKnow contributors Cara Santa Maria and Phil Torres spent a night at the zero-net energy house full of modern furniture, all of which are made from sustainable materials.

In this episode of TechKnow, we also look at another invention - Baxter, a robot designed to do simple industrial jobs, such as loading, unloading and handling materials on an assembly line.

But will it replace humans and is it safe for them to work alongside us?